Though Baalke and Harbaugh NEVER say what they might be lacking, everything they did in F/A and the draft tells you that they were quite eager to add outside speed.

In a classic Baalke strategy, he went into free agency targeting specific needs–play-making WR, first and foremost–to give himself leeway to draft for any position, regardless of need.

That led to the flier signing of Randy Moss, who, if he has anything left, is an obvious pure speed WR.

And the signing of Super Bowl hero Mario Manningham, a solid, first-down making third WR on any team.

Baalke also picked up RB Brandon Jacobs to flesh out the tailback situation, again without major risk.

So the 49ers didn’t necessarily have to draft a speed WR and for depth at TB…

But when those exact players came up in the 1st and 2nd rounds, that’s exactly who they drafted, anyway.

Essentially, Baalke and Harbaugh did some intentional duplication at key spots to insure improvement at those spots.

-In the first round, the 49ers used their 30th pick to take speed WR A.J. Jenkins, who theoretically would be in the same role as Moss. (But not Manningham or Michael Crabtree.)

So if Jenkins is good right away, there isn’t a great need for Moss. And if Jenkins isn’t good right away, he’s Moss’ back-up and develops as a back-up for all three WR spots (split-end, flanker, slot).

-In the second round, the 49ers’ used the 61st pick to select Oregon TB LaMichael James, who isn’t the same type of runner as the much bigger Jacobs but definitely clutters up the 49ers’ TB depth chart.

Teams usually at most carry four TBs who aren’t main special teams performers, and right now the 49ers have Frank Gore, James, Kendall Hunter (who plays some STs), Jacobs, Anthony Dixon (ST player) and Rock Cartwright (great ST player).

That’s a lot of TBs, even if you designated 1 or 2 as ST guys. You’d never keep THREE extra TBs just for STs, the roster just doesn’t work that way.

There’s a huge logjam at TB, but again, I think the 49ers sort of designed this way–sign Jacobs in case they don’t get a TB they love in the draft, and when James was there in the 2nd round, they grabbed him and will deal with the logjam in training camp.

–No. 3 conclusion: They were looking at one specific QB upgrade (Peyton Manning), but otherwise are confident that Alex Smith can produce a better offense with faster weapons around him.

And Colin Kaepernick looms as a future starter–though Harbaugh was very specific saying that Kaepernick is NOT competing with Smith for the starting job right now.

Kaepernick, Josh Johnson and Scott Tolzien are competing for the 2-3-4 QB spots, Harbaugh said, and Smith is separate at No. 1.

Harbaugh’s almost never that clear. Important to note this.

–General conclusion: The 49ers are a good team that focused on one specific area–offensive play-makers–took care of that partly in F/A, but then jumped on two play-makers it identified early in the draft.

Then they went for depth in the later rounds. And they gobbled up extra picks for 2013 when they became available.

Baalke can use them to pile up players in 2013, or he can use the picks to put together in a package to move up to get an extra premium ’13 pick… or just keep moving around, as the mood strikes.

We can only judge this on how it works out on the field in 2012–maybe they could’ve used an interior OL in an early round, maybe they’re betting too much on Alex Boone or Daniel Kilgore…

But you can’t knock Baalke/Harbaugh for having a plan (get as many offensive playmakers as they can, if they like the playmakers) and being confident with their youth, depth and ability to pick the right guys in training camp if there’s duplication.